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Originally published in 1965, Contraception received unanimous acclaim from all quarters as the first thorough, scholarly, objective analysis of Catholic doctrine on birth control. More than ever this subject is of acute concern to a world facing serious population problems, and the author has written an important new appendix examining the development of and debates over the doctrine in the past twenty years. Noonan traces the Church's position from its earliest foundations to the present, and analyzes the conflicts and personal decisions that have affected the theologians' teachings on the subject.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A magisterially documented history of church teaching on birth control [which] suggests that there are good reasons why the traditional stand can change. (Time)

A book whose importance is difficult to exaggerate... [Noonan] has created an intellectual watershed... The inherent brilliance of the book and its dramatic timing make it as truly exciting as a book can be. (Harper's)

A superb contribution... [Noonan] presents all the relevant data with objectivity, restraint, and understanding. (Commonweal)
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.

About the Author

John T. Noonan, Jr., is Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Every catholic man or woman needs to read this book. No, every Christian who holds the historical Christian faith. Noonan carefully studies the history of contraception without arriving at any facile conclusions. It makes one ponder (indeed, I am not yet done thinking about what the Church's teaching demands...)

This book historically proves that the Catholic Faith on the serious sinfulness of contraception is apostolic and thus immutable. From the fathers of the church to the doctors of the church each and every one of them oppose contraception as seriously sinful. Both St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas condemned contraception as contrary to the laws of nature and nature's God since it intentionally frustrates the procreative good of sexual intercourse. Only the Manichean heretics and others like them who hated matrimony, procreation, the human body, and in general material creation supported the use of contraception. Noonan also documents the history of contraception. It did not begin with the birth control pill as some erroneously think. There are many methods of contraception including the most primitive use of coitus interruptus. The apostolic tradition, which is the ultimate rule of Christian faith along with holy scripture, is reflected in the Catechism of the Council of Trent which condemns contraception and abortion. The fathers of the Church recognized the intrinsic link between contraception and abortion, and did not make a big fuss over the distinction between the two since they did not have a definitive affirmation on the beginning of human life at conception. Same as the church whose magisterial teaching in "On Chaste Marriage" by Pope Pius XI is that every contraceptive act is intrinsically evil and that every intentional killing of the result of human procreation is intrinsically evil(notice this does not imply any position on the beginning of human life; whose beginning at conception is a scientific fact of embryology not a doctrine of the Catholic faith).St. Thomas Aquinas held the same position as the magiserium of the Church despite denying that human life begins at conception.Read more ›